I'd be interested, and I like using the latest balance mods; would also be pretty interested if it involves Ironhawk's thoughts about starting nations with certain artifacts.
Settings wise : lately 4 out of 5 games I entered were using _very_ difficult research, which gets old - like having tofu 4 out of 5 dinners.
I'd be happy with normal difficult or below, or ...
Something like Quantum Mechanic's Twilight of Magic settings might be cool, if others think so : he was doing difficult (or worse) research, pretenders couldn't have extra magic added to them (example : Wyrm starts with no magic paths, can't have any added; Rime Mariner has 1 cold, can't have any added), and high magic nations /themes are outlawed - doesn't do for 5% magic site setting, but Pythium starts with 7 income instead of 5.
Might be too much work to figure out which themes are okay, but it does make for a great game - national troops hanging around much longer.
Another alternative might be : No pretender with more than a total of 5 (some number between 3 and 8) in magic paths. So no one is going against uber-blessed critters, likewise the killing-dead nations aren't so appealing because of scale issues.
Finally, there's a mod that allows limitting magic to level X (ie, only level 2 research or less, level 6 or less, etc). Might be interesting.
I'm not wed to any of those, just putting them forth as suggestions - starting artifacts, or ... Chazar's latest Chandrea map, (all nations start with some sage-ish mages, and items) would be cool, in balancing nations or at least changing them.